Dry cleaning or washing machine



Feb. 27, 1934 GREEN 1,948,879

DRY CLEANING OR WASHING MACHINE Original Filed Feb. 5, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l J i m 25 2 I I y I] J /2 rave/760m L B Cree/ A/wdzdy Feb. 27, 1934. B, GREEN 1,948,879

DRY CLEANING 0R WASHING MACHINE Original Filed Feb. 3, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 26' HHUW/ 7 0 i1 caxmv l'nvehl'orl Lee 3. Gran;

Patented Feb. 27, 19342 DRY CLEANING GE. WASHING MACHINE Application February 3, 1931, Serial No. 513,063 Renewed danuary it, 193d 12 Ciairns.

My invention relates to structural features of washing machines and in one of its general objects aims to provide simple and effective means for preventing any material reduction of the vapor pressure within the container or" the machine, for deterring the exit of liquid through a vent provided for this purpose, and for collecting any emitted drip in a drip receptacle from which it can conveniently be poured out.

" In some further general objects, my invention aims to provide a novel arrangement of the pivoting parts for a rotatable or oscillable container of a washing machine; aims to provide 1! pivot pintless which can readily be associated M with the venting means, the drip-deterring means and the drip-catching receptacle, and aims to provide novel means for supporting the venting and drip-deterring means from the container. Moreover, my invention aims to provide an assemblage of drip-deterring and drip-emitting parts in which these parts can be cheaply made and cheaply connected to each other and to the container, and in which certain of the parts will be sealed to each other during the diptinning of the resulting assemblage without requiring any separate operation for this sealing.

Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a vertical section through a washing machine embodying my invention, taken along the axis of the container and the axis of the two pintles.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the same.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the drip-catching receptacle and the adjacent portion of the stand.

Fig. 4-. is an enlarged vertical section through adjacent portions of the container and the cover, taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical section taken along the line 5--5 of Fig. 2 through the venting pintle of Fig. 1 and the parts adjacent thereto.

Fig. 6 is a section similar to portions of Fig. 5, showing an alternative construction of certain parts.

Fig. 7 is an enlarged central and vertical section through the crank-receiving pintle of Fig. 1 and the parts adjacent thereto.

Fig. 8 is a similarly enlarged vertical section through a drip-catching pan and parts adjacent thereto, showing a pintle designed not only for venting the container and discharging drip into (Cl. (is-18) the said pan, but also for interlocking with the crank.

Fig. 9 is an enlarged horizontal section through a side wall portion of the container, taken along the line 9-9 of Fig. 1.

In the illustrated embodiment, I am showing a cleaning machine designed to be used with equal advantages as a dry-cleaning machine (namely, with a volatile liquid of the general class of naphtha in the container) or as an ordinary washing machine with water and soap in the container. For these interchangeable purposes, the container comprises a receptacle having a tubular side wall l secured at its lower end to a bottom 2, together with a cover 3 clamped in sealing relation to the month end of the receptacle by cover attaching means which include clamp hooks 4.

Fastened to diametrically opposite portions of the tubular receptacle Wall 1 are two pintle supports, each formed of a metal strip bent to a U- shaped formation with the free end porions of its shanks bent away from each other to form feet engaging the said receptacle wall, and with the back. of the U formation secured to one of the pintles, the assembly being such that both pintles have a common axis diametric of the receptacle.

Thus, in the right handle pintle-supporting arrangement in Fig. 1 (shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 7), the pintle-supporting member is a rigid metal strip bent to have two feet 5 engaging and welded to vertically spaced portions of the receptacle wall, which feet are integral with the shanks 6 of the strip. The outer ends of these shanks are connected by a riser part 7 of the strip, which part is perforated and forms the back of. the U-iormation of which the portions 6 form the shanks. Extending through the perforation in the strip part 7 and clinched to the latter is the inner end of a tubular pintle which has the portion 8 A adjacent to the strap portion 7 of a diameter corresponding to the journaling formation 9 in the upper end of the adjacent riser portion 10 of a stationary stand in which the two risers 1i) and 11 are rigidly connection by a bottom bar 12.

outwardly of this journaling portion 8 A the pintle is enlarged in diameter to present a pintle head 8 B which is spaced from the strap por tion '7 by a distance slightly greater than the width of the journal 9. Extending into this head is a diametric slot 8 C for receiving the usual web 13 on a shank 14 forming part of a crank which also includes a crank arm 15 and. a han- (file 16.

Fastened (as by welding) to the opposite side of the receptacle Wall 1 is a companion strap which supports a second pintle in axial alinement with the aforesaid pintle, as shown in Fig. 5. This second pintle also has its inward portion clinched through a perforation in the back or outward part '7 of the supporting strap and has the pintle part 1'? outward of this strap part '7 of a diameter corresponding to the journalforming U-shaped upper end 9 A of the companion riser 11.

The outer end portion of this second pintle also is of an enlarged diameter to form a head 17 A, and this head has a peripheral groove 18 from which a radial bore 19 leads to an axial bore 20, which axial bore 20 has its inward portion 20 A enlarged in diameter and opening at the inner end of the pintle. Socketed in the enlarged bore portion 20 A is a wick tube 21 which abuts against and is sealed to the receptacle wall 1, this wall having a port 22 opening into the bore of the tube.

Disposed within the wick tube 21 and preferably fitting against the bore wall of this tube is a highly porous wick or drip-deterring member 23. This wick desirably consists of a cylinder of soft felt of sufiicient compressibility so that it may be twisted tightly around a needle slid axially through it and then inserted into the wick tube 21 from the interior of the container through the port 22, even when this port is much smaller in diameter than the bore of the wick tube.

Supported adjacent to the grooved head 1'7 A ,of this tube and wick carrying pintle is a dripcatching receptacle, here shown as a flattened cup which has its inner wall 25 welded to the outer face of the adjacent stand riser 11 and provided with an upwardly open recess 25 A which clears the journaling portion 17 of this pintle. The outer wall 25 B of this drip cup preferably also has an upwardly open notch 25 C of larger diameter than the pintle head 1'? A, so that this head can pass freely into the interior of the said pan without bumping against the outer wall 25 A even if the user is not careful when slipping the container and pintle assembly into the stand-supported position shown in Fig. 1.

To seal the cover 3 to the receptacle of the container, I desirably roll the upper end of the lateral wall 1 of this receptacle into a bead l A (as shown in Fig. 4) and provide the cover with a downwardly open annular channel portion 3 A which registers with the receptacle bead l A and houses a compressible packing ring 26. Then I also provide a plurality of clamping means spaced circumferentially of the container, for clamping the cover down on the receptacle to compress the packing ring between them. For this purpose I desirably employ the clamping means more fully disclosed in my copending application #507,338 as filed by me January 8, 1931 on a Container closure, namely clamp arrangements in which hook members 4 engage a peripheral trough 27 on the cover and are drawn downward by a handled lever 28, although I do not wish to be limited to any particular means for securing and sealing the cover of my container to the receptacle.

When the machine of my above described construction is to be used with water and soap (or some other water soluble detergent), the receptacle of the container is partly filled with hot water to which the soap or other detergent is added, and the cover is clamped down after the ea ers clothes have been inserted in the receptacle. This can all be done while the receptacle member (namely the receptacle with the strap and pintle assemblies) is lifted as a unit from the stand and set on a table or stove, and with many classes of goods this assembly is desirably set down over a gas burner so that the clothes can be boiled in the receptacle after the usual manner of using a wash boiler.

The container with its contents is then set upon the stand and either rotated or oscillated for a suitable period of time by the crank so as to agitate the contents and insure a complete cleaning action, the effectiveness of this agitation being desirably increased by providing the side wall of the receptacle with indentations l A as shown in Fig. 1. These indentations preferably extend longitudinally of the said side wall, and the vent port 22 is desirably disposed in a wall part which extends between two adjacent indentations.

Since no further heat is applied to the container after its removal from the stove, or after pouring the hot water into it in case there is no preliminary boiling, the temperature of the water will gradually fall, thereby contracting the space occupied by the water and tending to produce a partial vacuum between the water and the container wall portions. With a normally upright container supported so as to rotate about a horizontal axis, no vent for preventing the formation of such a vacuum can be provided in the cover, since the cover is directed downward during a considerable portion of each rotation of the crank, so that any vent in the cover would cause hot water to be spurted out. Such an ejection of water would also occur with any lateral air vent if this had a freely open bore, as for example if the wick 23 in Fig. 5 were omitted,

and the ejected hot water would be apt to spurt out over the top of the drip pan so as to scald the user. With the here disclosed arrangement, such an objectionable and dangerous action cannot occur, for the following reasons:

The vent passage portions (comprising thebore portions 19 and 20 in the venting pintle, the bore of the wick tube 21, and the port 22 in the wall of the container) will admit air from the interior of the drip pan through the pores of the wick into the container whenever the container v is even approximately upright, since the quantity of water needed for the washing is usually considerably less than half the capacity of the container, thereby insuring an intermittent entry of air during the successive rotations of the container.

When the container is inverted, the water will slide down freely by gravity past the quite small port 22, so that only quite small quantities of water will enter the wick tube through that port and the wick will prevent this water from flowing freely through the tube. Moreover, if the inner end of the wick is spaced from the adjacent portion of the container wall 1, a part of this Water will again flow back into the container. Any water which seeps through the wick will issue from the outlet portion 19 of the vent bore only when the latter has opening directed downward; and since the water is emitted through the bottom of the groove 18, the side walls of the groove will confine it and prevent any splashing. Consequently, the water passing through my vent arrangement will merely be emitted in quite small quantities which drip from the groove into the drip pan, but which are not tossed out over the axis,

edges of this pan, particularly when the pan reaches above the grooved portion of the venting pintle.

By using a Wick which can be compressed for insertion through a container port of smaller diameter than the wick, I not only am able to increase the total area of the air ports in the wick to correspond to the area of the port, but also enable this wick to be inserted in the wick tube after the adjacent parts have been secured and sealed to one another. In practice, it is important to have all exposed portions of the container and the parts fastened to the latter protected by a non-corrosive coating, as for example by a heavy coating of tin. This can easily be done for the receptacle and the parts attached to the latter, by dipping these as a unit into a bath of molten tin, but the temperature of the melted tin would scorch a wick of any material suitable for the above recited purpose if this wick was inserted before the tinning. By using a wick which can be inserted after the tinning, I prevent this scorching. Moreover, the tin also will fill in at the junctures of the wick tube with the pintle and with the receptacle wall, as shown at T in Fig. 5, so as to seal these parts to one another, thereby making it unnecessary to braze or otherwise seal these joints by separate operation.

Moreover, such a compressible wick can also be removed (after prolonged use of the machine) by inserting a fine crochet needle into the wick tube through the port 22 and twisting the wick around it to a reduced diameter, thereby permitting a fresh wick to be substituted.

However, while I have heretofore described my invention in an embodiment including desirable details of construction and arrangement, I do not wish to be limited in these respects, since many changes might be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims. For example, Fig. 6 shows a venting pintle and pintle-support assembly, in which the support is hollow boss 27 provided at its inner end with a peripheral flange 28 bearing against and welded to the receptacle wall I, and in which the pintle 29 has an integral inward extension 30 which is sealed at its inner end to the said receptacle wall, which extension serves the same purpose as the wick tube 21 in Fig. 5. In this embodiment, the axial bore 31 is of a uniform diameter throughout its length and snugly houses the wick 23; and in either case, the wick is preferably considerably shorter than the portion of the vent passage which houses it, so that its inner end may be spaced from the container wall for momentarily holding liquid which thereafter may (at least in part) flow back into the container.

Fig. 8 shows a single-piece vent pintle constructed after the general manner of Fig. 6, but with the pintle extended outwardly beyond the grooved head 29 to present an outer end portion 32 provided with an axial bore 33, which bore terminates outward of the outer end of the wicki housing bore 31 and has its outer portion intercepted by a diametric slot 34. Thus arranged, the end bore 32 will serve for receiving the portion 14 of the crank, and the slot 34 for receiving the projecting wings 13 on this crank, after v the manner described in connection with the pinthe drip cup can easily be made of such a depth as to collect all of the drip which will accumulate during a single use of my washing machine. Then when the container unit is lifted off the stand, this stand (which desirably is formed of sheet metal for lightness) can easily be inverted over a sink to empty the contents of the drip cup.

When my machine is used in connection with so-called dry-cleaning liquids, my vent means will similarly prevent any partial vacuum from being formed within the container by the condensation of fluid vapors, so that after the use of my machine the cover of the container can easily be detached manually from the receptacle. Moreover, my simple and inexpensive pintle construction and drip cup arrangement will obviously function equally well, regardless of the liquid employed for the cleansing.

However, while I have illustrated and described the numerous novel features of my invention as included in a single embodiment, I do not wish to be limited to their conjoint use.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a washing machine, a container having a port in a wall thereof, a vent duct extending outwardly from the said wall and into which the port opens, the vent duct including a tubular bore portion adjacent to the said wall and of larger diameter than the said port, and a wick housed by the said bore portion and normally of a diameter corresponding substantially to the diameter of the said bore portion, the wick being sufficiently compressible to permit it to be contracted to the diameter of the said port to permit the inserting of the wick from the interior of the container into the said bore portion through the said port.

2. In a washing machine, a container having a port in a wall thereof, a vent duct extending outwardly from the said wall and into which the port opens, the vent duct including a tubular bore portion adjacent to the said wall and of larger diameter than the said port, and a wick housed by the said bore portion and normally of a diameter corresponding substantially to the diameter of the said bore portion, the inner end of the wick being freely spaced from the said wall.

3. In a washing machine, a container having a port in a wall thereof; a vent member secured to and disposed outside the said wall and having a venting passageformed therein, the said port opening into the inner end of the said passage; the vent member having a peripheral groove spaced from the said wall and having the outer end of the said passage opening into the bottom of the said groove.

4. In a washing machine, a container having a port in a wall thereof, a tubular vent member abutting at its inner end against the said wall in operative alinement with the said port and having a peripherally grooved portion; the bore of the vent member comprising an inner part substantially axial of the port, and. an outer part extending radially of the said grooved portion and having its outlet in the bottom of the groove in that portion.

5. In a washing machine, a container having a port in a wall thereof, a tubular vent member abutting at its inner end against and sealed to the said wall in operative alinement with the said port and having a peripherally grooved portion; the bore of the vent member comprising an inner part substantially axial of the port, and an outer part extending radially of the said grooved portion and having its outlet in the bottom of the groove in. that portion; a supporting member on which the vent member is journaled, and a dripcatching receptacle fast on the supporting memher and positioned for underhanging the entire grooved portion of the vent member.

6. In a washing machine, a container having a port in its side wall, a hollow pintle, means fast upon the said container wall for supporting the pintle with the inward portion of the bore of the pintle alinement with the said port, and a separately formed vent tube clamped between the pintle and the part of the said wall surrounding the port, the said tube being partly socketed in the pintle and cooperating with the bore of the pintle and the said port to afiord a vent passage from the interior of the container through the pintle.

7. In a washing machine, a container having a port in its side wall, a hollow pintle, means fast upon the said container wall for supporting the pintle with the inward portion of the bore of the pintle in alinement with the said port, and a vent tube clamped by the pintle against the part of the said wall surrounding the port; the said container wall and tube being conjointly covered with a coating, a portion of which coating seals the inner end of the vent tube to the said wall.

8. In a washing machine, a container having a port in its side wall, a pintle-supporting member of U-shaped cross-section having the free ends of its arms formed to aiford feet engaging the exterior of the said wall and having its back spaced from the said wall and provided with a perforation, the said member being secured to the said side wall with the said perforation and port in axial alinement; and a hollow pintle member extending through the said perforation and engaging the part of the said wall which surrounds the said port, the pintle member being rigidly secured to the pintle-supporting member.

9. In a washing machine, a container, pintlesupporting member and pintle member as per claim 8; and a container support presenting a substantially semi-cylindrical bearing portion on which the part of the pintle member outward of and adjacent to the pintle-supporting member is seated, the back of the pintle-supporting member engaging the inward end of the said bearing portion.

10. In a washing machine, a container; a

pintle support including an outward portion spaced laterally from a lateral wall portion of the container and provided with a perforation, and also including feet-forming portions bearing against and secured to the said wall portion; and a pintle extending transversely of the said outward portion of the support, the pintle having a shoulder engaging the outer face of the said outward portion and a part extending through the said perforation and engaging the inward face of the said outward portion of the support.

11. In washin machine, a container support including a member having a forked upper end portion, a container member including a container and a pintle fastened to and extending radially outward from the container, the said pintle having a part thereof journaled in the said forked support portion, the container having a port and the pintle having a bore leading from the said port and presenting its outlet outward of the said forked portion of the support; and a drip catching receptacle mounted on the said forked portion and underhanging the said outlet, the said receptacle having a riser wall in fiatwise engagement with the outer face of the said forked portion and an opposite riser wall farther from the container, both of the said walls extending higher than the pintle and each of said walls having in its upper edge a notch in vertical alinement with the axis of the pintle.

12. In a washing machine, a stand including two spaced portions presenting alined bearings; a container member including a container disposed between the said stand portions, and two alined pintles respectively journaled in the said bearings, and a drip-catching receptacle supported by the stand adjacent to one or" the said bearings; the pintle journaled in the last named bearing having a vent passage including a passage portion extending axially of the pintle and leading from the adjacent wall portion of the container, and a second passage portion extending radially of the pintle and opening into the said receptacle, and the container having in the said wall portion a port opening into the first named passage portion; the last named pintle also having a portion extending outwardly of the container beyond the said second passage portion, and having its outer end portion provided with means for attaching a crank to the pintle.

LEE B. GREEN. 

